Found 25 collections related to New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs

Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith (1806-1893) was an author, lyceum lecturer and early activist on behalf of women's rights. Her writings included novels, poetry, children's books, plays, essays, stories, and articles for newspapers and magazines. She was active in the women's rights movement and in 1848 attended the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. She was one of the first female lecturers on the lyceum circuit. Her husband, Seba Smith, was a newspaper editor and writer. Collection consists of Smith's writings, correspondence, drawings, and printed matter providing information on her literary career and her activities as a lyceum lecturer and early women's rights advocate. Writings include manuscripts of Smith's autobiography; manuscripts and clippings of her articles, lectures, poems, stories, plays, dime novels, and other writings. Among her writings are reminiscences of Ralph Waldo Emerson and several chapters of an unfinished biography of George Washington. Also, a small quantity of correspondence of Smith and her children, materials concerning spiritualism and psychometry, and several drawings and a photograph. less

Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853?) was born a slave in Haiti (then Saint Domingue) and came to New York City in 1787 with the family of Pierre Berard. After becoming a successful hairdresser, Toussaint supported the Berard family and bought the freedom of many slaves. A devout Roman Catholic, Toussaint contributed to Catholic schools and orphanages, was a founding member of the first French Catholic Church in New York City, and helped poor black youths and the victims of yellow fever. In 1951 a petition was begun for his canonization. Collection consists of Toussaint's correspondence and other papers. Correspondence, 1793-1853, is with friends and relatives in the U.S., France and the Caribbean. Also included are letters and poems, 1822-1829, from his niece and ward, Euphemie, and manumission papers of several slaves whose freedom Toussaint had arranged. less

Samuel Ward (1814-1884) was an American lobbyist, financier, author, and adventurer. He was the son of the banker Samuel Ward (1786-1839) and the grandson of Samuel Ward (1756-1832) soldier and merchant. His sister was Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". After leaving his father's banking house, Prime, Ward & King, he visited Latin America on behalf of U.S. corporate and government interests. By the end of the U.S. Civil War he was settled in Washington, D.C. where he lobbied the government on behalf of financiers. Collection contains the papers of Ward, his father, his grandfather, and other family members, as well as his collection of autograph letters of mathematicians and scientists. Papers include handwritten and typescript letters, notebooks, transcripts, photographs, and printed matter. Samuel Ward correspondence, 1825-1882, concerns his activities, intellectual and literary matters, and family concerns. Many letters were written by friends who were historical figures. Autograph collection, 1647-1856, comprises letters by famous mathematicians and scientists acquired by Ward with his purchase of the library of mathematician A.N. Legendre. Also, Ward's travel notebooks, and letters, photographs and other papers of various members of the Ward family. less

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a writer, promoter of African-American artists during the Harlem Renaissance, patron of the arts, and photographer. After he graduated from the University of Chicago in 1930, he entered upon a career as a reporter for newspapers that included The American in Chicago and within a few years The New York Times. At the latter he served as an overseas correspondent in Paris and subsequently as an assistant to the music critic Richard Aldrich in New York City. Van Vechten moved to New York City in 1906 with his first wife Anna Elizabeth Snyder, a teacher. After his divorce in 1912, Van Vechten met and married the stage actress Fania Marinoff. Marinoff made her stage debut at the age of eight in a stock company, and eventually developed a successful stage career. Van Vechten's novels include The Blind-Bow Boy, Interpreters and Interpretations, Nigger Heaven, Peter Whiffle, Tiger By the Tail, and The Tattooed Countess. Van Vechten promoted the careers of many authors' works by writing introductions to their monographs. In his second successful career as a photographer, he had the opportunity to photograph, and to have himself photographed, with many literary figures, stage and screen stars and others. Papers reflect Van Vechten's social life and professional career as a writer, photographer and patron of the arts; they also document Van Vechten's literary and artistic circle of friends and colleagues. An avid collector, Van Vechten retained the letters of prominent individuals who corresponded with him including Ralph Barton, James Branch Cabell, Arthur Davidson Ficke, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Donald Gallup, Langston Hughes, Edward Jablonski, Klaus Jonas, James Weldon Johnson, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Bruce Kellner, Saul Mauriber, H. L. Mencken, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, Florine Stettheimer, and Henrietta Stettheimer. Papers are also rich in Van Vechten's photographs of prominent individuals, and in 19th century photographs of his family in Iowa. Multiple editions of Van Vechten's monographs and the monographs of others add to the diversity of the papers. Many of the monographs have been autographed by the author. less